Tackling an Essay Question Part 1

 When answering a question it is important that you address the issues it raises. It sounds obvious, but it is surprising how many students miss the crux of the question. The resulting essay will be sub standard and possibly result in a fail if it doesn’t address the question.

There are some important guidelines which will help you when assessing what issue(s) the question is raising
 
Let us consider Law questions but the same guidelines can be used for other arts and humanities topics.

The question asks you to:
 “Assess the impact of the Supreme Court on the separation of powers and the British constitution”.
The critical operative word is Assess. The essay does not envisage you writing all you know about the recent introduction of the supreme court the separation of powers and the constitution.
The word assess signifies that some analysis is intended, and although you have to outline certain facts as to when the supreme court was established, under what authority and the notion of separation of powers and the unwritten constitution of Britain, this will be set out in the Introduction and be fairly brief.

The question is looking for you to give your opinion on the effect (if any) the supreme court might have. Notice the (if any) as sometimes the conclusion may be that there is no impact. Do not always presume therefore that you have to find a positive/negative impact or any impact whatsoever.
If you find that there has been a positive impact in some areas and no change in others, then make sure that you do not refer to these in the same paragraph. You must split the positive, negative and neutral effects into separate paragraphs or the essay will be muddled and not particularly logical.

You also have to assess various aspects of any potential impact. You can assess whether the supreme court has helped the impartiality of the judiciary and how this has impacted on the separation of powers and constitution.
You can assess whether the supreme court has made it less necessary to have a written constitution or bill of rights.
Assess whether the supreme court will make potential conflicts between the judiciary and the executive more or less likely.
Does the supreme court make the fusion of British powers more like a genuine separation of powers?

You can see that if you address the question is this way you are answering the question by assessing these different factors
 
In Part 2, I will look at answering a question which includes the word “discuss”.